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REMINISCENCES OF MORGAN b. MARTIN, 

1837-1887. 



EDITED AND ANNOTATED, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 

By REUBEN G. THWAITES, 

Secretary State Historical Society of IViscoiisin. 



[reprinted from vol. XI., "WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.] 



r; 



wu. Hist, Sd^;- 

IN BXCHANGB 



SKETCH OF MORGAN L. MARim. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



Morgan Lewis Martin, son of Gen. Walter Martin, was 
born in Martinsbiirgh, Lewis county. New York, on the 31st 
of March, 1805. In 1824 he graduated, from Hamilton Col- 
lege, at Clinton, New York. For two years, he studied law 
with Collins and Parish, in Lowville, N. Y., and in 1826 went 
to Detroit, then the chief city of the Northwest. There he en- 
tered Henry S. Cole's law office and was soon afterwards 
admitted to the bar. His residence in Detroit lasted but a 
few months, and in May, 1827, acting under the advice 
of his cousin, James Duane Doty,' — who was then seek- 
ing to have the Territory of Huron erected by congress, 
with Green Bay as the seat of government, — took up his 
home in Green Bay, where he resided until his death, " one 
of the most conspicuous and distingaished among that band 
of pioneer settlers who early gave a national reput ation to 
Wisconsin."' From 1831 to 1835, he was a member of the 
legislative council of Michigan Territory, and from 1838 to 
1844, one of the territorial council of Wisconsin. In 1845-47, 
he represented his Territory, with marked ability, in con 
gress.' He was president of the state constitutional conven- 

' It was not generally known that Doty and Martin were cousins, the 
former being the latter's senior by six years . Doty's mother was a sister 
of Gen. Walter Martin. When her husband, Chillus Doty, died, October 
16, 1834, she went to live with her brother, until the latter's death in Mar- 
tinsburgh, December 10, 1834. The young men were reared ia the same 
neighborhood, — the elder Martia being the village postmaster, and the 
elder Doty the innkeeper, — and were always close friends. James D. 
Doty had moved to Detroit in 1818 and to Green Bay in 1833. — Ed. 

* Fathers of Wisconsin, p. 241. — Ed. 

^ " In September, 1845, Mr. Martin was elected territorial delegate to 
congress over James Collins, whig, and E. D Holton, " liberty," candidates. 
He took his seat as delegate in the 30th congress on the first Monday in 



380 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XI. 

tion of 1847-48, and both in the chair and on the floor was one 
of the guiding spirits of the body which framed the charter 
under which the commonwealth of Wisconsin still operates. 
In 1855, he was elected a member of the state assembly, and 
three years later was sent up to the senate. Throughout 
the entire period of the War of the Rebellion, he served as 
an army paymaster. He was appointed United States 
Indian agent in 1866, holding the position until 1869, when 
the war department took charge of Indian affairs, and was 
relieved by Capt. W. R. Bourne, U. S. A. In 18G6 he was 
the candidate (under the Johnson movement) for congress 
from the old 5th district, being defeated by Philetus Sawyer. 
In 1870, he resumed the practice of law. In 1873, he was 
again elected to the assembly. From 1875, until the time 
of his death, he served as county judge of Brown county, 
and was from its first organization one of the most active 
of the vice-presidents of this Society. 

On the 25th of July, 1837, in Green Bay, Judge Martin 
was married to Elizabeth, daughter of the late Col. Me- 
lancthon Smith, U. S. A,, and grand-daughter of Judge Me- 
lancthon Smith, who was a delegate from New York, in 
congress, in 1782-84, prior to the period of the constitution. 
Judge Smith was also a member of the New York conven- 
tion of 1787 called to consider the advisability of accepting 
the United States constitution. He was a strong anti-feder- 
alist, and leader of the Clintonian majority in that body. 

December of the same year, and served until 1847. He proved an active 
and influential representative. During his term Mr. Martin introduced a 
bill to create the Territory of Minnesota. The name " Minnesota " is, as 
is v^rell known, the Indian name for the St. Peter's river. Mr. Martin got 
it, as he only recently told the vp-riter, from Joseph Brown, who had been 
with him in the Wisconsin territorial legislature. Stephen A. Douglas, 
chairman of the committee, reported the bill with the amendment that 
the name of the proposed territory be changed to " Itasca." Mr. Martin 
contended for the name he had selected and succeeded in having it re- 
tained in the bill, which passed the lower house. In the senate, Senator 
Woodbridge, of Michigan, opposed the bill on the ground that there were 
no people in the proposed territory, and it was defeated. The same bill 
passed at the next session of congress, and the Territory of Minnesota, as 
originally projected and named by Mr. Martin, was creat'^d."— (Dwight I. 
Follett, in The Green Bay Gazette, Dec. 14, 1887.)— Ed. 



1837-87.] SKETCH OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 381 

Hamilton recognized him as his most formidable opponent; 
and it was not until he manfully acknowledged himself con- 
vinced by Hamilton's masterlj^ logic, that the Empire state 
was won to the Union. Six children were born to Judge 
and Mrs. Martin, viz.: Leonard Martin; Annie, died in 1861; 
Melancthon, died in infancy; Sarah; Morgan L,, Jr., and 
Debbie. Mrs. Martin and four of their children survive to 
mourn the loss of husband and father. 

In June, 1887, while a guest at "Hazelwood," the home 
of Judge Martin, I had frequent interviews with him re- 
garding AVisconsin men and affairs, during his sixty years' 
residence here. The following narrative is the result. 
While the language and arrangement are in a great meas- 
ure necessarily the editor's, the statements are those of the 
judge. The manuscript was sent to him for revision, in 
September, 1887, but the increase of infirmities incident to 
advanced age induced him to beg for further extension of 
time. He commenced work upon the MS., however, about 
the middle of November, and every few days took it up and 
added some note or explanatory sentence. During all this 
time, also, he was answering a running tire of questions by 
mail, relative to his recollections of other facts in early Wis- 
consin history, not touched upon in his narrative, but covered 
by matters included in this volume of Collections, much 
valuable material for the purposes of annotation being 
thereby contributed by him. The judge appeared to greatly 
enjoy this sort of thing, in a desultory way, but the idea of 
a continuous narrative rather depressed him with a sense 
of personal responsibility. He was an exceedingly modest 
man, and averse to crowding himself, or allowing himself to 
be crowded, before the public. For this reason his narra- 
tive does not include some interesting features which the 
readers of this volume would have liked to have had pre- 
sented to them. He had a keen memory, at the time this 
narrative was jotted down, and would frequently digress 
into what the newspapers would call a "spicy," though 
thoroughly good-humored and harmless, account of the in- 
side workings of early statecraft in Wisconsin and the 
peculiarities of the men of affairs in the territorial period, — 



382 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [VOL. XL 

but he would inevitably conclude with a request that no 
note be made of his conversation on this score. He felt 
that any sach revelations on his part might possibly be 
misconstrued and wound the feelings of living descendants 
of the public characters of those days; and he " had no de- 
sire," he frequently said, " to tell tales out of school." Could 
Judge Martin have been induced to himself write more 
fully of his reminiscences of pioneer days in Wisconsin, he 
might have made a volume which would be treasured for 
all time as a rich legacy of historical material. Shorn as it 
is, however, the following narrative will be found to present 
much novel and entertaining matter, that will prove of en- 
during value to students of Wisconsin history. 

Judge Martin, in a letter to me, November 25, answering 
some questions of fact, incidentally wrote that he was 
progressing favorably on the MS.; but added, in a rather 
sorrowful postscript: "An hour's talk with you v/ould be 
worth a ream of memoranda." Upon the evening of De- 
cember 1, he again wrote, promising to return the MS. 
within a few days, and closing up a report of his negotia- 
tions on behalf of the Society, with Mrs, Otto Tank, of Fort 
Howard: that estimable lady — who donated the Tank li- 
brary to the Society, in 1867 — having willed to our art gal- 
lery, largely through his personal influence, a superb collec- 
tion of oil paintings. On the morning of Friday, December 
2, he had been at work upon the narrative, and pausing to 
prepare for going to his office, down town, received a par- 
alytic stroke which benumbed his right side. His son, 
Morgan L. Martin, Jr., enclosed his father's last letter to 
me with the sad endorsement that Judge Martin's active 
career had " undoubtedly now closed." The MS. narrative 
followed this, within a few days, with the judge's readily- 
recognizable interlineations upon the concluding page, show- 
ing that he had practically finished his corrections. He 
lingered until 4 P. M. of Saturday, December 10, 1887, when 
he passed away, his last work on earth being a labor of love 
for this Society, whose interests were ever so close to his 
heart. 

Judge Martin was a man of generous impulses, kindly 



1827-87.] SKETCH OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 883 

manner, keen wit, fine literary tastes and greatly enjoyed 
the comforts of his beautiful home in Green Bay, where he 
was the idol of his accomplished wife and daughters. The 
majority of those with whom he was associated during his 
long and active career in the public affairs of Wisconsin 
Territory have long ago passed away, so that a compara- 
tively small number of the generation of to-day knew him 
with any degree of intimacy; but those who had thus known 
him mourned his death as that of a rare gentleman of the 
olden school. No one who has carefully studied the begin- 
nings of Wisconsin's greatness can but recognize that all 
honor and praise are due the memory of master spirits like 
Martin, who moulded the nascent commonwealth intelli- 
gently and well. 



NARRATIVE OF MORGA?( L MARTIN. 



IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE EDITOR. 

I landed at Green Bay on the 20th of May, 1827 — sixty 
years ago. Our vessel was the La Grange/ a chance sailor, 
loaded with officers and provisions for the garrison at Fort 
Howard. Among these officers was Brig. Gen. Hugh Brady, 
commanding the western department of the army, who 
was on a tour of observation to the western posts. Maj. 
Benjamin F. Larned^ the paymaster, wha, in 1854, became 
paymaster-genera], was also with the party on an official visit 
to the fort, where he was no doubt welcomed, by the troops. 
There were several civilian passengers as well, who had 
boarded the boat at Detroit, and were upon various errands 
to the people of the wilderness, although the greater num- 
ber of such got off at Mackinaw, en route. Among the pas- 
sengers for Green Bay was Father Fauvel,' a Catholic 
priest, — the first of his church, I think, to land in Green Bay 
after the close of the early missions; he stayed here with us 
for several years. I think that several militarj attaches, 
and Messrs. Cass and McKenney, were also on board, — the 
two latter being on their way to attend a treaty with the 
Menomonees, at Butte des Morts, which was held in August 
following. 

1 established my law office at Shanty Town. It was a 
room in a story and-a-half frame building, still standing, 
and occupied by a branch of the Ducharme family.' 

' Of Detroit, one of the Newberry line, Capt. Bingley. Another of the 
Newberry boats was officered by (Japt. Allen.— Ed. 

2 For sketch of Fauvel's checkered career, see French's Hist, Broivn Co. 
(1876), p. 70.- Ed. 

' The Green Bay Gazette of Dec. 12, 1887, in a biographical sketch of 
Judge Martin, gives a list of his abiding places previous to his marriage: 
"He at first boarded with the families of Maj. Robt. Irwin and his sons at 
25 



386 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [VOL. XL 

There were, perhaps, about one hundred civilians at the 
Bay settlement when I arrived.' They were French and 
mixed-blood voy ageurs, in the main, — in the winters attend- 
ing on the Indian traders, who also lived in the community, 
and in summers cultivating an acre or so apiece, mainly 
planted to vegetables. In the fall, a trader, in setting out 
for the Indian country, would engage four or five, or more, 
of these voyageurs for the season, according to the extent 
of business anticipated. Their duty was to help load and 
propel the boats; collect furs from the savages throughout 
the winter, and indeed perform any service the trader 
might ask of them, however menial. The voyageurs were 
bound to the trader by an iron-clad contract, among its 
many curious provisions being one that the former should 
submit to livirg on corn and grease, or in fact any sort of 
edible which the exigencies of this rough life might demand. 

The traders themselves exercised a marked influence, for 
good or evil, over the Indians with whom they traded, and 
could generally sway them as they saw fit. This was espe- 
cially the c^se with the freeand easy Frenchmen, who 
always seemed to be hand-in-glove with their dusky brethren 
of the forest, with whom they were often united by ties of 
blood. John La we, Jacques Porlier, Louis Grignon and Lewis 
Rouse are the only French traders whom I can remember as 
being here in lSi7. They all of them operated ia the inter- 
est of the American Fur Company. Daniel Whitney, Will- 
iam Dickinson and Robert and A. J. Irwin were trading on 
their own account. These traders all lived here and had 
families, so far as I can remember. 

At Milwaukee were located the posts of Jacques Vieau 
and Solomon Juneau.' Vieau was, at that time, I think. 

Shanty Town; then with Mr. Carpenter at the same place, and in 1828 
moved down to Judge Arndt's, where he continued to board through seven 
years. Then he went to the old Washington house, of pleasant memory, 
meanwhile having rooms with Dr. Geo. S. Armstrong, now of Buffalo." 
— Ed. 

' Cf. Judge Martin's brief description of early Green Bay, in Wis. Hist. 
€oUs., viii., p. 209; x., pp. 139, 140.— Ed. 

-Cf. Andrew J. Vieau's narrative, ante, — Ed. 



1827.] NARRATIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 387 

equipped by Daniel Whitney, while Juneau represented 
Astor's company. I remember that in 1833 there was a treaty 
council at Chicago, at which some traders' claims were to be 
settled from the Indian annuities. I arrived there on the 
first morning o£ the council, having been sent to represent 
Whitney's interests. I found Vieau and asked him whether 
he had put in his claim. He replied that he had, and on my 
asking for the papers showed them to me. Now Vieau had 
lost $2,000 for Whitney through the Indians at Milwaukee, 
in consequence of an epidemic of small- pox, a year or two 
before, as I ascertained after some detailed inquiry. But as 
he could neither read nor write, he had allowed some one to 
fix up a claim of but $500, and this he had presented. I at 
once had Vieau withdraw this and amend it to the proper 
amount, which was allowed, and Whitney got his money. 

Michael Brisbois and James H. Lockwood were trading 
for themselves at Prairie du Chien; so also was John B. 
Brunet, but the latter's brother-in-law, Joseph Rolette," oper- 
ated for the American Fur Company. It is possible that 
there may have been others at the Prairie, but these are all 
I can remember. 

Pierre Paquette was at the Portage, transporting boats 
with teams of horses and oxen; and perhaps trading as 
well. Francis le Roy had a trading house there also, at this 
time. 

Some of the Indian trading posts, in those days, were of a 
permanent character. The trader would build a log house for 
his family, should he chance to have one, and log buildings 
for store and warehouse, near by. Here, if trade warranted, 
he would return each fall and pass the winter with savages 
and wild animals for companions. Milwaukee, Fond du 
Lac and Fox River (below Lake Winnebago) were such sta- 
tions, being supplied from Green Bay; but at Butte des 
Morts, the Portage and Prairie du Chien, the traders lived 
all the year round. As a rule, however, the Indian trade 
was conducted in the wilderness with but temporary quar- 
ters and but little care for permanent locations, although 
some of the operators had a preference for familiar districts. 

^Wis. Hist. Colls., ix., pp. 293-296, 465.— Ed. 



388 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XL 

Once, Whitney established a man on the St. Peters river in 
Minnesota. Lawe had an agent named Stanislaus Chappue, 
who worked up trade on the Menoraonee river; having for 
a neighbor one William Farnsworth/ equipped by Whitney. 
Down the Wisconsin, on the Wolf, in the Shawano country, 
on the upper Mississippi and along the bay shore, could be 
found the traders of this section, eager for peltries, and gath- 
ering about them crowds of Indians who had themselves be- 
come quite shrewd in bartering for those products of civili- 
zation which had grown to be a necessity of their being. 
Barter was at the time the only form of exchange in the 
frontier trade, — money was never used. 

The communifcy I found here, sixty years ago,' was more 
peaceful than any we have since known. There was but little 
crime. The French people were free-and-easy, good-hearted 
and hospitable. The greater part of the settlement was on 
the east side, but there was a scattering along the west bank. 
The lower part of the hamlet was very near the line be- 
tween Astor and Navarino. The farm lowest down was that 
of Pierre Grignon; then, going up stream, that of John 
Lawe, a portion of which my residence now occupies; above 
this, a small farm owned by Louis Grignon. The next set- 
tler, whose place attained the dignity of a farm, was Lewis 
Rouse; Amable du Rocher had a farm above this; and then 
Joseph Dacharme, upon a portion of which Shanty Town 
was built. On the west side, Jacques Porlier owned the 
farm nearest the mouth, and above him was Dominique 
Brunet. I do not remember anything that could be called a 
farm until one got up to the place of a man called Prisque 
Hyott.' But altogether there were not over four or five real 
farms. There were several small spring-planting fields, 
scattered along on the east side of the river as far as De- 
pere, — such as those of Robinson, Louis Beaupre,* La Mure, 

' In Wis. Hist. Colls., ix., p. 397, Judge Martin has a sketch of Farns- 
worth. — Ed. 
2Cf. Id., viii.. p. 209; x., pp. 136-140.— Ed. 

^ Spelled Aillotte, in Id., x,, p. 138, and Yout in Id, iii,, p. 242.— Ed. 
^ Spelled Bauprez, Id., p. 139. — Ed. 



1S27.] NARRATIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 389 

John B. la Borde, Hardwick and half a dozen others, — 
but none of them had enough land to rank as farmers. 
Fronting them, on the opposite bank, were perhaps a dozen 
similar cabin patches. At Depere, on the east side, a short 
distance above the dam, and near the bank, was still remain- 
ing the foundation of the old Jesuit mission. It was in the 
immediate neighborhood of an old place afterwards occu- 
pied by William Dickinson. 

When I arrived, three or four small farms were being 
opened on the margin of the bay, in the present town of 
Scott. I remember seeing the clearings from the deck of the 
La Grange, as we approached the Bay settlement, but I do 
not recollect the names of their occupants. 

Augustin Grignon was located at the Kaukauna rapids, 
on the north side, below the present city of Kaukauna. He 
had a good sized farm with a number of cattle, sheep and 
horses, and traded with the Indians. His \o^ house was a 
very comfortable dwelling for those days; he had a large 
frame barn, and about that time built for himself a spacious 
frame store-building. 

The farmers whom I first met here, were, most of them, 
plowing with oxen. A pair of cattle, instead of being 
joined by neck-yokes, would have their horns lashed to 
a straight stick, to which were tied ropes fastened to the 
long rude beam of a primitive plow — a pointed stick serv- 
ing as a share. The device was about as effective as a 
modern corn row marker. In the slight furrow the seeds 
were planted, and subsequent cultivation, such as there was, 
left to the hoe. Lawe, Grignon and Porlier were the lead- 
ing farmers, although none of them did much work. Judged 
by present standards, their establishments could hardly be 
called farms. These early settlers and traders were too lazy 
to fish or hunt, or enjoy any sport that would attract an 
American or English gentleman; but they were obliged to 
keep their eyes open upon the action of men inimical to 
their interests, and those inclined to unlawful appropriation 
of worldly goods. 

There had been a school in the Bay settlement, I think, 
for two or three years previous to 1827, but I do not r ecollec'' 



390 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XL 

that there was any in progress when I arrived. Father 
Fauvel started a parish school in a small log house built for 
the purpose near where the water- works pumping station 
now is. He also used it for chapel purposes. I attended 
his service but once, and that was some few months after 
he came. I went in, walked up to the altar, and in a whisper 
told him I would like to borrow his seine. He replied in the 
same tone that I could have it, but must return the article 
by a certain hour, when he would be through with his serv- 
ice and should want to use it himself. This chapel was 
the only church in Green Bay at that time. When I landed 
here, the community was destitute of regular spiritual in- 
struction; although I think that Eleazer Williams, the Epis- 
copalian missionary among the Oneidas, had been in the 
habit of occasionally appearing on the scene and gathering 
a small congregation. 

Williams has been about as thoroughly discussed as any 
character in the history of Wisconsin. I never was any ad- 
mirer of the man or his methods, but I am inclined to think 
that General Ellis and others ' are somewhat too severe 
upon him. A man reared amid savage surroundings, as 
he was, should be judged by a different standard than 
we set up for one who has spent his life entirely among 
white people. No one can from childhood fraternize with 
Indians without absorbing their characteristics to some ex- 
tent, — and becoming vain, deceitful and boastful. He was 
a remarkable man in many respects, but was deeply imbued 
with false notions of life, and his career was a failure. He 
was neither better nor worse than his life-long companions, 
and was what might have been expected from one who had 
been sent into the world with certain racial vices, and 
whose training and associations were not calculated to bet- 
ter him. 



Ou my first arrival at Green Bay, May 20, 1827, 1 had let- 
ters to the Indian agent, Maj. Henry B. Brevoort, from 
Governor Cass, relative to some law matters in which the 

* Wis. Hist. Colls., vi., p. 308, et seq.; viii., p. 322, et seq. — Ed. 



1827.] NARRA.TIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 391 

agent had become entangled with rival traders in his dis- 
trict, resulting in several suits then pending in the United 
States court. The agency building occupied by Major Bre- 
voort and family was the headquarters of the officer com- 
manding Camp Smith, which was only a few rods from 
Shanty Town, the commercial emporium of the Bay set- 
tlement. In my business intercourse with the agent, he 
appeared to me intelligent and agreeable — a very pro- 
nounced specimen of " the gentleman of the old school." 
He had served many years as an officer in the United States 
army, appearing upon the register of 1812 as captain of the 
2d regiment of infantry, of which Col. John Bowyer was 
commandant. His family consisted of his wife and an only 
daughter, afterwards married to a gentleman in Detroit, 
and I presume still living.' Of the life of Major Brevoort, 
after leaving the Indian agency at Green Bay, in 1830, 1 
can give no particulars beyond the fact that he went to 
Detroit. 

Brevoort succeeded Maj. John Biddle ° as Indian agent at 
Green Bay. Biddle was also an officer of the United States 
army, previous to and during the war of 1812; he lived and 

^ Wis. Hist. Colls., viii., p. 393, et seq.,— an entertaining sketch of early- 
times in the Northwest, by Major Brevoort's daughter, Mrs. Mary Ann 
Brevoort Bristol— Ed. 

^ John Biddle was born in Pennsylvania; 2d lieut., 3rd artillery, July 6, 
6, 1812; 1st lieut., March, 1813; captain of 42d infantry, Oct. 1, 1813; trans- 
ferred to corps artillery, May 17, 1815; major asst. inspector general, June, 
19, 1817; disbanded, June 1, 1821. From August, 1815. to November, 1817, 
he was commandant at Fort Shelby, Detroit; in 1821, chairman of trustees 
of original Michigan University; in 1827-28, mayor of Detroit; 1828, first 
vice-president of the Historical Society of Michigan, holding the office for 
nine years, and in 1832, delivering an address before that body which is 
published in Historical and Scientific Sketches of Michigan; first president 
of Farmers and Mtchanics' bank, of Detroit, 1829-1838; chairman of the As- 
sociation for Promoting Female Education in Detroit; president of Michi- 
gan Central railroad in 1835. Elected to represent Michigan Territory in 
congress, in the fall of 1829, he arrived at Washington December 6, hav- 
ing been compelled to travel nine hundred of the intervening thousand 
miles on horseback, such were the difficulties of traversing the wilderness 
then stretching between the capital of the nation and the heart of the 
Northwest. — Ed. 



392 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [VOL. XI. 

died a prominent citizen of Detroit, and one of its most 
estimable public characters. He was a delegate from Mich- 
igan to congress, in 1829-30. 

Samuel C. Stambaugh was appointed Indian agent at 
Green Bay by President Jackson, in 1831. He was the pub- 
lisher of a county newspaper in Pennsylvania and was 
supposed to have received the appointment as a reward for 
political services, his personal character not being such as 
to commend him to public favor. His nomination was said 
to have been promptly rejected by the senate, on account of 
dissolute habits while at Washington with an Indian dele- 
gation in the winter of 1831-3i. He was then sent out by 
the president as a special agent — Col. George Boyd being 
transferred from Mackinaw (where he had served several 
years) to the vacant agency of Green Bay. Stambaugh's 
title of "colonel" was not conferred, it is believed, for 
military services ever rendered by him before or during 
his temporary appointment as agent. I was elected in 
1831 to the legislative council of Michigan, the sessions 
of which were to be held at Detroit, commencing early 
in 1833. There was at that date no mode of reaching 
Detroit from Green Bay, except by vessel or a trip on horse- 
back of five hundred miles — through the whole distance, an 
Indian country. This session necessitated my absence from 
Green Bay during the greater part of Stambaugh's career 
among us, and I would have seen very little of him but that I 
visited Washington in the fall of 1831, where he had taken a 
delegation of Indians on his individual responsibility to 
treat for a cession of a portion of their lands. I there met 
him casually, and was asked and declined to interfere with 
his professed objects. After his retirement from public em- 
ployment, about 1836 or 1837, 1 again casually met him in 
Washington. I can only speak of him, therefore, from pub- 
lic report and net from personal knowledge. He was not 
considered generally as a man who accomplished anything 
worthy of note. 

Col. George Boyd, the successor of Stambaugh, was a gen- 
tleman of refined manners, the brother-in-law of President 
J. Q. Adams, and remained agent for several years. His 



1827.] NARRATIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 393 

papers are in the archives of the State Historical Society of 
Wisconsin.' He was a man of superior intelligence, but 
estremely passionate, — which weakness sometimes involved 
him in personal diflScuities with his neighbors, but never 
severed him from the true character of a polished and popu- 
lar gentleman, both in and out of office. The descendants 
of Colonel Boyd are still residents of northeastern Wis- 
consin. 



The only Pawnee slave I ever saw, attracted my attention 
soon after my advent here. She was not then in bondage, 
having been freed some time before, but for many years 
succeeding her capture from her tribe she had been in a con- 
dition of slavery. She was, when I first saw her, the wife 
of a French voyageur named Biische, and some of their 
descendants are living in Green Bay at this time. 



I have been questioned relative to the Indian occupancy 
of the islands at the entrance of Green Bay. The group 
was originally known as the " Pottawattamie islands," and 
all, I think, were occasionally occupied by the tribe from 
which they derived their name. When the first vessel came 
here with troops, in 1816, it had on board Col. Talbot Cham- 
bers,' Col. John Bowyer,^ Indian agent, and others. They 

^ Agent Boyd's lettfer-book is a mine of interesting historical material. 
The portion covering the Stambaugh expedition, in the Black Hawk war, 
had been prepared and very fully annotated, for this volume of Collections, 
but a press of other matter crowded it out. It will undoubtedly be 
given in vol. xii. — Ed. 

- Col. Talbot Chambers was appointed to the army from Pennsylvania; 
1st lieut., 5th infantry, June 18, 1808; captain, Oct, 31, 1811; major asst. adj. 
general, April 2, 1813; major, 4th rifles, Feb. 21, 1814; transferred to rifle 
regiment, May 17, 1815; lieut. colonel, March 8, 1817; colonel, Nov. 10, 
1818; transferred to 1st infantry, June 1, 1821; dismissed, April 28, 1826, 
For gallant conduct in the sortie from Fort Erie, was brevetted lieut. col- 
onel, Sept. 17, 1814. While commandant at Fort Crawford, he acquired 
the reputation of being a despot and made many enemies. See Wis, 
Hist. Colls., ii., pp. 128, 129; ix., p. 466. — Ed. 

'^Col. John Bowyer was born in Virginia; appointed lieut. of infantry, 
March 7, 1792; in 3d sub legion, Dec, 1792; in 3d inf., Nov,, 1796; captain 



394: WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [VOL. XL 

christened the different islands with names, as " Washing- 
ton," ' '' Chambers," " Green," etc., and the bold bluff as Bow- 
yer's bluff. These names have been retained, but my own 
impression is that the whole group of islands and the main 
land were occupied originally by the Pottawattamies. My 
personal knowledge of old-time signs is deriyed from a sin- 
gle visit made in passing by canoe from Green Bay to 
Mackinaw in 1828, in company with the late Governor Doty. 
We landed on Washington island, and found there evi- 
dences of Indian occupancy, whether as old as Marquette's 
time could not of course be determined one hundred and 
fifty years afterwards." I think, however, that the tribe 
made their summer quarters further south, and that their 
visits to these islands were occasional only, as were those 
of the Ottawas at a later day even, to Beaver islands. 

When I came here, sixty years ago, the whole region ex- 
tending from the entrance to the bay as far south as Mil- 
waukee, on the lake shore, was occupied by Pottawattamies 
and Ottawas. Their principal villages were at Manitowoc, 
Pigeon and Sheboygan rivers. There were none, I think, 
north of Kewaunee, and I doubt very mjich whether there 
were any except temporary lodges as far north as the 
islands. 

From Father Hennepin's account, the Griffin, — or " Gry- 
phon," as he calls it, — was loaded with peltries, but at 
what point gathered does not appear, and probably the ves- 
sel had entered the bay or coasted the lake further south. 
There is a harbor at Washington island, and, if landing was 
made anywhere in that vicinity, it was probably there, as 
none of the others, except the one immediately north of it, 
are of sufficient dimensions to warrant the belief of early 
occupation in considerable numbers. 

Jan., 1799; retained, April, 1802, in 2d inf.; major of 2d inf., Aug. 18, 1808; 
lieut. col., July 6, 1812; colonel of 5th inf., March 13, 1814; disbanded, June, 
1815. He arrived at Green Bay as Indian agent, in 1815, and died in 
office, 1820.— Ed. 

^ The Washington, 100 tons (Capt. Dobbins), the largest vessel then on 
the lakes, brought the officers to Green Bay. — Ed. 

- We landed, also, on one or two others near the northern main land. — 
M. L. M. 



1828.] NAREATIVE OP MORGAN L. MARTIN. 395 

In 1828, 1 went upon a canoe voyage from Green Bay to 
Prairie du Chien, up the Fox and down the Wisconsin 
rivers. I was in company with Judge James Duane Doty/ 
his marshal, Thomas Rowland, and the deputy marshal, 
William Meldrum — all of Detroit except myself. The year 
before, had occurred the Winnebago outbreak at Prairie du 
Chien, and the murderer Red Bird and his friends were now 
to be tried at a special term of court. Judge Doty had ap- 
pointed me United States district attorney, pro tern.; hence 
my presence with this judicial party. Our conveyance was 
a large birch-bark canoe, manned by four voyageurs, picked 
up at the Bay; and our time of leaving, the first of August. 

At Kaukauna rapids, we found Augustin Grignon. The 
Menomonees had a planting ground on the south side of the 
stream, but there was no village there. 

On Doty's island, very near the mouth, on the west chan- 
nel, was the village of Hootschope, or Four Legs, the well- 
known Winnebago chieftain. There were from one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred lodges there, covered with bark or 
mats. We found Four Legs to be a very ordinary looking 
Indian and only stopped at his town for a few minutes, 
while the voyageurs]were taking our craft over the Winne- 
bago rapids. 

Garlic island was the next stopping place. There was a 
Winnebago village there of about the same size as that over 
which Four Legs presided. The lodges, however, were 
longer and neater. We purchased a supply of vegetables 
of the island villagers. 

At Butte des Morts was a large village of the Menomo- 
nees. Their chief, I think, was Oshkosh. It was difficult,— 
impossible, in fact,— to correctly estimate the population of 
these villages we passed on our way, f^r the females and 
children of both sexes were exceedingly shy and kept out of 
view. 

' Appointed Feb. 1, 1823, as additional judge for the Territory of Michigan, 
with jurisdiction over that portjon of the Territory lying west of Lake 
Michigan; salary, $1,300 per annum. — Ed. 

2 The United States district attorney for Michigan was Daniel Leroy, with 
a salary of $200 per annum and fees. — Ed. 



896 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [VOL. XL 

Pierre Paquette was at the Portage, and helped us across 
with one of his teams. Paquette's log house was on the west 
bank of the Fox. Francis le Roy lived in the neighborhood, 
on the opposite shore, near where Fort Winnebago was after- 
wards established. We were entertained at Paquette's, both 
going and coming, on our tour. 

The next Indian community was on the Wisconsin river, 
possibly where Prairie du Sac now is. We could see a few 
lodges near the steep bank, but not the entire village, for we 
did not stop. 

The settlement of Prairie du Chien consisted of but a 
dozen or twenty houses. The principal man was Joseph 
Rolette, the fur trader. At the house of another trader, 
John B. Brunet, we found entertainment, after the fashion 
of the country. I remember that there was a French serv- 
ing woman at this quasi hotel, who had escaped from the 
Red Bird massacre; her daughter, a little girl of five or six, 
was going minus her scalp, and was shown to us as one of 
the curiosities of the place. 

On arriving at the Prairie, I met Lucius Lyon, then a 
United States surveyor, and afterwards United States sena- 
tor from Michigan,' who had just completed his survey of 
the private French land claims there. Having found, on 
reaching the end of my canoe trip, that President Adams 
had appointed John Scott, the congressman from Mis- 
souri, as prosecuting attorney, and that my services in the 
Red Bird case were not needed, after all, Lyon and I planned 
for a tour through the lead mines. I had known Lyon in 
Detroit; and in the spring of 1828 he had passed through 
Green Bay in his canoe, en route for Prairie du Chien. 

There were no maps of this country, then; but Lyon had a 
small pocket compass with him and took the courses and 
distances of the Pox- Wisconsin route, and made the first 
approximately correct map o:' that water highway; later, on 
my return from Galena to Prairie du Chien, I did the same 
for the Mississippi; we then put our notes together and gave 
the result to a prominent eastern map-maker who adopted 

' Elected at the organization of that state in 1836, and serving till 1840. — 
Ed. 



1828] NARRATIVE OP MORGAN L. MARTIN. 397 

it as a part of the geography of the country. It was pub- 
lished in 18;i9 or 1830, and was the first real map of the coun- 
try between Green Bay and Galena. I was much gratified^ 
afterwards, to see that later official surveys of the Missis- 
sippi corresponded exactly with mine. 

Lyon and I started down the Mississippi from Prairie du 
Chien on a very primrtive sort of steamer; there were two 
vessels like Mackinaw boats, with a platform between and 
ashed built on that — it was, in fact, a steam catamaran. 
During the entire time court was in session at the Prairie, 
we staid at Galena, and then Judge Doty and Rowland came 
down and joined us there. After a few days, Lyon and I 
went on what was then a decidedly novel trip, an expedition 
through the mining region north of Galena. Our first ob- 
jective point was Dodgeville, where Henry Dodge had 
started a " diggings." We found his cabins surrounded by 
a formidable stockade, and the miners liberally supplied 
with ammunition. The Winnebagoes had threatened to oust 
the little colony, and were displaying an ugly disposition. 
Dodge entertained us at his cabin, the walls of which were 
well covered with guns. He said that he had a man for 
every gun and would not leave the country unless the 
Indians were stronger than he. At Platteville was John H. 
Rountree, who, with his men, lived in tents.' We did not 
see Rounfcree himself, at that time, but were much impressed 
with what was pointed out to us as his claim. There was a 
hole some twenty feet square and four or five deep, the bot' 
tom of which was a solid body of lead. There was a family 
at Blue Mounds living with Ebenezer Brigham; they were, 
with Brigham, the first settlers at the place.' Brigham was 
not at home, but the man with a family was, and entertained 
us in his cabin, which was used as a hotel when occasion re- 

^Hist Grant Co. (West. Hist. Co., 18&1), pp. 675,676; Rountree, accom- 
panied by Maj. J. B. Campbell, William Ruby and John M. Williams, com- 
menced mining operations in Platteville, November, 1827. — Ed, 

^Hist. Dane Co. (West Hist. Co., 1880), pp. 346-348; Brigham's house was 
on s. w. ^, 8, w. I, section 5, town of Blue Mounds, Dane county; his dig- 
gings were on section 7, and had been previously worked by Indians; he 
located at Blue Mounds, the spring of 1828. — Ed. 



398 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [VOL. XL 

quired. We spread our blankets upon the bare ground, 
which was the floor of our hosteh-y, but slept quite as soundly 
as one might in the best chamber of a palace hotel. This 
man was fairly wild on the subject of lead mining. He had 
bought a quarter-section of land and spent all of his money 
in prospecting, but in vain. His signal failure, however, did 
not in the least daunt him, and he stood quite ready to waste 
as much more money in the same way, if he could but get 
his hands upon it. Sinsinawa Mound and Gratiot's Grove 
were also among the points we stopped at. The country was 
overflowing with prospectors, miners and those who thought 
to pick up a living in various ways, while the excitement 
lasted. There were fully two thousand men in the country 
north of Galena, and we frequently came up with little 
groups of two or more, trudging painfully along with their 
bundles slung over their shoulders, or perhaps encamped 
by the wayside; while to come upon a couple of rough fel- 
lows sitting on a log or stone, playing old sledge for each 
other's last dollar, was no uncommon experience. We rode 
through the country with our horse and buggy, — hired at 
Galena, — with perfect ease and freedom, and met with no 
semblance of opposition from either white man or red. 

There were from one thousand to fifteen hundred people 
resident in Galena, at that time. It was a lively little town. 
The houses were none of them painted, but there was that 
" snap " about the place that gave promise of great things in 
the future. Ezekiel Lockwood was the chief business man, 
and had a big store. L. M . R. Morse was another heavy trader. 
The mining country was supplied with men from Galena's 
large floating population. Speculators were as numerous as 
sand-flies in Green Bay, the majority of them coming from 
points lower down on the Mississippi. 

The miners were in mortal fear of the Indians, and few 
of them thought of permanently settling in the lead coun- 
try; their object being to get what they could from the dig- 
gings, so long as peace lasted, and be prepared to leave for 
the Illinois settlements again, on short notice. Galena had, 
however, cautiously sent out a few frontier colonies, but 
none of them at any great distance. The only settlements 



:I829.] NARRATIVE OP MORGAN L. MARTIN. 399 

we saw, that looked anything like attempts to stay, were at 
Dodge's stockade, and Henry Gratiot's grove. 

After our inspection of the raining country, we returned 
home from Galena the way we had come, — via Prairie du 
Chien and Portage. On the Fox river, at about Butte des 
Morts, we met Maj. David E. Twiggs, with three companies of 
soldiers in boats, on their way to establish the garrison of 
Fort Winnebago. Jefferson Davis, just graduated from 
West Point, was one of his lieutenants. Both parties stopped 
and we had some conversation. All of us knew Twiggs, 
who bore a bad character. He had a private named William 
Prestige, in his boat, securely chained; this Prestige, exas- 
perated by brutal treatment, had attempted to take Twiggs's 
life,. and the latter, by way of revenge, kept him in irons and 
under the harshest treatment allowable by the code, until 
his term of enlistment expired, in the year following.' 

The jurisdiction of Michigan extended west of the Missis- 
sippi and, with the exception of the two trading posts at 
Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, was exclusively an Indian 
country west of Lake Michigan. Hostile tribes wandered 
over it at will, casting an evil eye upon any encroachment 
upon their extensive and beautiful domain. The Red Bird 
war culminated in opening the mineral region west of Blue 
Mounds to miners in search of its hidden wealth. East of 
that landmark was an unexplored wilderness. Having now 
visited the mining country, I had a natural desire to extend 
my explorations through the remainder of the territory now 
known as Wisconsin. 

Judge Doty and I, — in company with Wistweaw (Black- 
smith), a Menomonee Indian, and Alex. Grignon," a young 
half-blood Menomonee, as helpers, — left Green Bay on horse- 
back, in the spring of 1829, and traversed the region hitherto 
little known, south of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. We 
were the first party, so far as I can ascertain, to make the 
trip by land between the extreme outposts of this section, 
Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. Proceeding along the 
summit of the high ridge which hems in Lake Winnebago 

^Wis. Hist. Colls., vii., p, 375.— Ed. 
-Id., X., p. 484.— Ed. 



400 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XL 

on the east, — the line afterwards adopted for the government 
road, — we headed for Fond du Lac. At Calumet, on the 
way, we saw a small Menomonee village resting on the lake 
shore, but did not go down to it, keeping steadily on our 
way along the ridge and through the prairie which lies to 
the east of the lake. At Fond du Lac there was a Winne- 
bago village, but we crossed the river without visiting the 
savages, for whose company we were not over anxious. 
Wistweaw, however, was sent back there to engage a 
guide to pilot us to the Four Lake country. These lakes, to- 
gether with Green and Fox lakes, were landmarks more or 
less familiar in name to the old traders, through their em- 
ployes engaged in collecting furs from the Indian villages 
of the interior. But no white man, it may be confidently 
stated, had ever yet visited the country with a view of as- 
certainingits adaptability for becoming the abode of civilized 
life. There was then scarce an opening in the forest west 
of Detroit. 

After some waiting, our Menomonee returned in company 
with a Winnebago, mounted on a scrubby pony, who volun- 
teered to show us the way across the country. The guide 
did very well for five or six miles, then pushed ahead for a 
mile or two and flung himself on the grass. When we had 
caught up, we asked him to remount and go ahead; but he 
made no sign of moving and sulkily exclaimed that he 
never had been the slave of a white man and never would 
be. He was finally induced to put us on the trail for Lake 
Horicon and then, giving the lash to his pony, started back 
to his village on a lope. Lake Horicon, we found to be only 
a marsh. At its head, there was a cluster of Winnebago 
wigwams. The Indians tiiere, essayed to put us on the 
trail to Four Lakes, but we brought out at the Green lake 
prairie, where we struck another village of the Winneba- 
goes. To seek information there, was impossible, for the 
women and children hid themselves, and the bucks were 
assembled in their long medicine lodge, gambling, and 
would pay no attention to us whatever. 

Thus left to our own resources, we set off due south across 
the prairie, until, to our great joy, we found a deep cut trail 



1829.] NARRATIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 401 

which we followed until it brought us into the woods east 
of the Four Lake country.' The Four Lakes, called in Win- 
nebago Taychoperah, gave name to the entire region for 
many miles in their vicinity, but no one, at that early period, 
could have thought of establishing there the capital of a 
great state. I was particularly interested in the lakes, my- 
self, because I knew that from them I could see Blue Mound, 
and thenceforth I should feel acquainted with the country. 
On the south shore of Third lake, also on the north shore of 
Fourth,— east of where Pheasant Branch now is,' — we 
found a few Winnebago Indians located. Proceeding west- 
ward, just south of Blue Mound, we struck a road leading 
from Sugar river, on which mineral had been hauled, and 
followed it to McCrary's furnace, a few miles southwest of 
the mound. There we met the first whites we had seen 
since leaving Green Bay. From McCrary's we went on to 
Dodgeville, where we stopped in a sort of hotel over night, 
and the next day we crossed the level country to Prairie du 
Chien. 

At the Prairie, Judge Doty held a term of court, and I 
officiated as United States district attorney, pro tern. 

On returning home, we proceeded overland, as before, 
but with some change as to trail. We passed by the way 
of Blue Mound, along the north bank of Fourth lake, near 
the small Indian village I have previously mentioned. We 
had a full view of both Third and Fourth lakes and the 
high land between them, on which Madison is now situated, 
but found no trail leading in that direction and presumably 
no villages existed there, showing its occupancy by the 
Winnebagoes at that time. The nearest wigwams were 
the two clusters 1 have already mentioned. It is possible 
that on our out-going trip, Governor Doty and I passed over 
State University hill. We passed from the village on the 
south shore of Third lake to that on the north shore of 
Fourth, with Lake Wingra on our left. We at that time 

^Wis. Hist. Colls., X., pp. 74,75; the itinerary of the tour is given, note 1, 
p. 74.— Ed. 

2 White Crow's village, situated near the mouth of the upper Catfish, 
about where Fox's bluff is. — Ed. 
26 



402 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XI. 

had no thought of founding cities, nor for some years after. 
The " City of the Four Lakes," on the north side of Fourth 
lake, was laid out by me in 1836, on the same ground subse- 
quently owned by Col. William B. Slaughter. 

Proceeding from the Four Lakes to Fort Winnebago, we 
crossed over to the south bank of the Fox. At Butte des Morts, 
we were ferried over, our horses swimming behind, and pro- 
ceeded along the west bank of Lake Winnebago and the 
lower Fox, to Green Bay. The country through which we 
had passed on our novel journey was, — after reaching a 
distance of thirty miles from Green Bay, — more charming 
than any we had ever beheld, with its extensive oak-open- 
ings and almost unlimited prairies. There was not, how- 
ever, a trace of occupancy or any indication that it had ever 
before been traversed by white men. It is not strange that 
a few years after witnessed its rapid settlement and im- 
provement by hardy frontiersmen.' 

^ The late Henry S. Baird was also of this horseback party, from 
Green Bay to Prairie du Chien, although Judge Martin seemed to have 
forgotten the fact, at the time of the interview. In The Green Bay 
Gazette, April 2, 1870, Mr. Baird gave the following account of the tour: 

" In the year 1825, '26, '27, and '28, Judge Doty and the writer traveled 
from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien in a bark canoe, by way of the Fox 
and Wisconsin rivers; our crew was composed of six or seven Canadians 
and Indians; time occupied in making the trip seven to eight days going 
and the same in returning. The country was then an entire wilderness, there 
being no white settlements or inhabitants, except at Green Bay and Prai- 
rie du Chien. 

" In May, 1829, Judge Doty, M. L. Martin, Esq., and the writer, left Green 
Bay on horseback, and went through the country to Prairie du Chien. We 
were accompanied by a Menomonee Indian as guide, who led or rode a 
pack horse. Our route was not a direct one, as our Indian was not well 
acquainted with the country west of Lake Winnebago; we traveled on 
the east side of that lake to Fond du Lac, thence by way of Green lake 
to the Four Lakes (crossing the outlet between Second and Third lakes), 
the Blue Mound, Dodgeville, and crossed the Wisconsin about six miles 
above its confluence with the Mississippi river. We were about seven 
days in making the journey, and saw no white people until we reached 
the Blue Mound. We were the first party of white men that had at- 
tempted and accomplished the land journey from Green Bay to the Mis- 
sissippi. 

" In those early days the accommodations for holding the court were 



1830.] NARRATIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 403 

In October, 1829, the first public meeting in the history of 
Green Bay was held here. Louis Grignon was chairman, 
while I officiated as secretary. We petitioned congress to 
build a road from the Bay to Chicago, and also to improve 
the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. 

About 1830, a Shot Tower company was organized, princi- 
pally composed of gentlemen living here and in Detroit, 
with one from Oswego. The firm name was Daniel Whit- 
ney, Platte and Co. They built a tower on the face of a 
cliff at Old Helena or Pine Bend, on the south bank of the 
Wisconsin river, twenty miles northwest of Blue Mound.' 
Considerable shot was made here. Daniel Whitney was the 
superintendent and had a man named Greene working the 
concern for him. Greene was shot near the fort at Blue 
Mound, in the Black Hawk war, in 1832.' 

While I was a member of the Michigan territorial legisla- 
ture, in session at Detroit, this same company got me to ob- 
tain a charter for them, to build a canal between the Fox 

neither extensive nor elegant. There were no regular court-houses or 
public buildings, the courts were held in log school-houses, where there 
were such, or in rooms provided for the special occasion, destitute of com- 
fortable seats and other fixtures for use of court, bar or jurors. In May, 
1826, when the term of the court was to be held at Prairie du Chien, on 
our arrival we found the old town entirely under water, the inundation, 
being caused by the overflowing of both the Mississippi and Wisconsin 
rivers. The troops had abandoned the fort, and the inhabitants had fled 
to the high grounds near the bluffs — but two or three houses were occu- 
pied, and oiily the upper stories in those. It will naturally be imagined 
that under such circumstances the court could not be held. Bat not so — 
a large barn, situated on dry ground, was selected and fitted up for the 
accommodation of the court, bar and suitors! The court occupied the ex- 
tensive threshing-floor, about fourteen by thirty-flve feet. The jurors oc- 
cupied the hay and grain mows on either side of the court. When the 
jury retired to agree upon their verdict, they were conducted by an officer 
to another barn or stable. Such was the condition of affairs in the early 
years of Wisconsin history." — Ed. 

^ The remains of this tower can still be seen, near the south end of the 
new Spring Green wagon bridge, which was erected in 1887. See Hist 
Iowa Co. {West, Fist. Co., 1881), pp. 473, 473, for detailed description of 
tower. — Ed. 

^ June 20. Wis. Hist. Colls., ii, -p. 351, and subsequent volumes. — Ed. 



401 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XI. 

and Wisconsin rivers. A ditch was dug across the prairie, 
about on a line with the old portage trail, farther down the 
Wisconsin than the present canal. But the trench was 
never filled with water except when the Wisconsin was high, 
and proved to be of no use.' 

I first visited Milwaukee in July, 1833, on a tour of explo- 
ration. With me, were Daniel Le Roy and P. B. Grignon, 
and we were mounted on horses. As far as Fond du Lac, 
our course lay on the same trail that Judge Doty and I had 
made in 1829. After that, we struck southeast to the shore 
of Lake Michigan, following it closely until the Milwaukee 
river was reached. Jacques Vieau and Solomon Juneau 
traded at this point. I had known them and their families 
since 1827, for their homes were really in Green Bay, at 
which place they obtained all their supplies. Both Vieau, 
senior, and Juneau were in Chicago, with the greater part 
of their families, at the time of our arrival; but young 
Jacques Vieau, son of the elder, officiated under the parental 
roof. 

When we set out on our tour, we agreed to eat ever v thing 
we saw, and one time were compelled to thus dispose of a 
hawk. At Milwaukee, there were no provisions for us; but 
there were several Indians loafing around and we engaged 
one of them to go out and get us some ducks. These, Jacques 
cooked for us, and we ate them cold upon our return trip, 
which was made by the way of the lake shore. On Sheboy- 
gan river, four miles above the mouth, there was an Indian 
village. We found a net spread near the mouth of the 
river, and in it two fine fish which we appropriated without 
ceremony. Next morning, an Indian from the village over- 
took us and supplied us with dried and smoked whitefish, 
which we found quite palatable. Manitowoc was out of 
our line, so we did not see the native village said to be there. 
The only other lodges on our course were at Waukesha 
and Milwaukee. We reached Green Bay after a delightful 
trip, in which the eager search for provision*! only served to 
strengthen our appetites. 

^Hist. Columbia Co. (West. Hist. Co., 1880), p. 610.— Ed. 



1833.] NARRATIVE OP MORGAN L. MARTIN. 405 

Both Solomon Juneau and Jacques Vieau were intelligent 
and worthy men, Mr. Juneau having the polished manners 
and airs of the French gentleman. In a certain History of 
Milwaukee,' the latter has been described as being on a par 
with the Indians, as to intelligence and manners." That they 
and their families were far removed above the savage tribes 
by which they were surrounded, is proven by the fact that 
they were enabled to procure goods and supplies to a large 
amount on the usual credit from the American Fur Com- 
pany. Neither of them did at that time regard themselves 
as permanent settlers of Milwaukee; but were temporary 
residents there for purposes of trade with the Indians. Their 
homes were in Green Bay. When I first visited Milwaukee 
in the summer of 1833, on the tour of exploration before 
narrated, they and their families were not there, the prem- 
ises being in charge of employes and one of Vieau's sons. 
A further evidence that all were mere sojourners was found 
in the fact that no land was cleared, fenced, or even under 
cultivation, except a small patch of ground used by a brother 
of Juneau, in which he cultivated a few vegetables. Sub- 
sequent events, however, proved Solomon Juneau to be the 
first permanent settler, when the land he occupied was ceded 
by the Indians and subjected to sale as government land. 

From 1833 forward, I was a frequent and always welcome 
visitor to the house of Solomon Juneau. His home was the 
''old trading house," and so far from being the filthy, dis- 
gusting home represented in the History of Milwaukee, was 
in all respects neat and comfortable; for the proverbially 
neat and tidy French women know how to make their hab- 
itations attractive. In the fall of 1834 the late Governor 
Doty, Byron Kilbourn and myself were at Milwaukee and 

^ Published by Western Historical Co. in 1881.— Ed. 

^ These remarks about Solomon Juneau are in the main identical with a 
letter,— dated Green Bay, June 21, 1881,— which Judge Martin wrote to 
the Milwaukee Pioneer Association, in defense of Mr. Juneau from reflec- 
tions made upon him by the historical work in question. For details of the 
dispute, see The Milwaukee Sentinel, June 26, 1881, and Back's Milwaukee 
Under the Charter, iii., appendix; the portions of the county history 
especially controverted are, pp. 65, 69. — Ed. 



406 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XI. 

spent a few days, bein^ entertained at the hospitable old 
trading house, the only habitation there. In April previous, 
on my way home from Detroit, Mr. Juneau's house was my 
only stopping place between Chicago and Green Bay; my 
business relations with him compelled my sojourn there for 
several days. At none of my visits did the " stinking skins " 
or the " odors " given off by fresh meats and fish which had 
become rank before being consigned to the " spit," produce 
an unsavory perfume. If there were any such, they never 
invaded the comfortable dwelling in which we were enter- 
tained, but were confined to the storehouse, the usual ad- 
junct to all Indian trading posts. 

As a man, Solomon Juneau needs no encomiums from me. 
He was always the same unselfish, confiding, open-hearted, 
genial, honest and polite gentleman. Our business rela- 
tions commenced in October, 1833, and continued for several 
years.' His first hint of the prospective value of his loca- 
tion at Milwaukee came from me, and he was so incredulous 
that it was sometimes difficult to prevent his sacrificing his 
interest to the sharks who soon gathered around him. Him- 
self the soul of honor, and unaccustomed to the wiles of 
speculators, without a friend to caution him he would have 
been an easy prey of designing individuals. Green Bay 
was his home as well as that of the Vieaus, and it was not 
until 1835 or 183G that Juneau first thought of permanently 
residing in Milwaukee, — after it came to be seen that the 
place was going to become a village. 

Juneau and I were joint owners of the original plat of 
Milwaukee. We never made any written memorandum of 
the terms of our partnership, and on account of his resi- 
dence on the spot he took the principal management of our 
joint interest for more than three years. At the close, ac- 
counts between us were adjusted and property valued at 
hundreds of thousands divided, with as little difficulty as 
you would settle a trifling store bill. 

It would take a volume to enumerate the many admirable 
traits of character which distinguished my late friend, Sol- 
omon Juneau. The intimate relations existing between us 

'Buck's Pion. Hist. Milwaukee, i., pp. 16-18.-- Ed, 



1838.] NARRATIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 407 

made me well acquainted with his family, and their every- 
day social relations. Mrs. Juneau, instead of the pure 
French of her husband, had a slight tincture of Indian 
blood.' Her native tongue was French, and that language 
was used in their family intercourse, though both spoke 
English. They both probably had also acquired a knowl- 
edge of the languages of several Indian tribes, with whom 
Mr. Juneau was accustomed to do business; but that they 
"dressed and ate like Indians, and in their domestic conver- 
sation spoke in the Indian tongue," is far from the truth. 
Mrs. Juneau was a most amiable and excellent woman, and 
many of the first settlers around Milwaukee will no doubt 
bear ample testimony to the deeds of charity by which 
she was distinguished. 



Gov. Henry Dodge was a straight, fine-looking man, quite 
pompous, and deserving of credit for the able manner in 
which he discharged his various public duties, military and 
civil. But he was deficient in early education ; and his habit of 
continually suspecting the motives of other men was one of 
the convincing proofs of that defect. When I was a dele- 
gate in congress, in 1845, Dodge and I were appointed com- 
missioners to treat with the Oneidas of this section. The 
object was to advance the condition of these people and in- 
duce them to take up homesteads. It so happened that I 
was belated and could not go out to Duck Creek, where the 
treaty was held, before taking my seat in congress. Dodge 
went out alone and could do nothing with the Indians. 
Augustus C. Dodge, his son, and a warm friend of mine, 
afterwards told me that General Dodge was ever after much 
put out with me, imagining that my reason for not going 
was, that I knew the Oneidas could not then be treated with 
and I desired to avoid the odium of failure. 

Although of testy temper, Governor Dodge had a kind 
heart. In the legislative council, in 1838, James R. Vine- 
yard, of Grant county, and I, got into a little difficulty, and 

' See ante, p. 219, note 3.— Ed. 



4:03 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XL 

Vineyard threatened to shoot me. The governor heard of the 
disturbance and, getting us together in his room, recon- 
ciled us. 

On Friday, the 11th of February, 1842, in the council cham- 
ber at Madison, Vineyard shot and mortally wounded my 
colleague from Brown county, Charles C. P. Arndt.* The 
following day I addressed the council on the death of Arndt 
and offered resolutions of sympathy with the widow and 
for preparations for the funeraV which were adopted. I 
also drew up the resolutions which were offered by Ebene- 
zer Brigham, of Dane, Monday, February 14, formally expel- 
ling Vineyard from the council, despite the fact that he had 
handed in a letter of resignation. Every member of the 
council voted for these resolutions except Moses M. Strong, 
of Mineral Point, who became one of Vineyard's counsel. 
Vineyard never entertained any hostility to me for what I 
did. That same winter I was in Platteville. He sought me 
out and expressed himself strongly on the subject of the 
tragedy, saying he had not slept a night since the event 
and would readily change places with Arndt. 



I was president of the second state constitutional conven- 
tion, which assembled at Madison, Dec. 15, 1847, and have 
distinct recollections of the leading spirits in that body. 
The strongest man in it was Judge Charles Dunn. I looked 
upon him as eminently sensible and conscientious. He was 
very much of an American in his instincts, and whenever 
the suffrage article was being discussed was strongly in- 
clined to impose restrictions upon the citizenship of the 
foreign born and the exercise of suffrage by them. Judge 
Edward V. Whiton was another strong man in the conven- 
tion, — a very efficient and reasonable man, with a great 
deal of forethought. Whiton was always ready to express 
sensible ideas on every question that came up. His was 
such a broad character that he developed no specialty dur- 
ing the great conference; he left his mark upon no especial 

' Strong's His^. Wis. Terr., pp. 380-385.— Ed. 

" Council Jour., Wis. Terr. LegU., 1842, p. 306.— Ed. 



1847-4:8.] NARRATIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 409 

feature of the perfected instrument, but helped mold all 
portions alike. F. S. Lovell, of Kenosha, was another man 
with a broad, general mind, without a specialty but over- 
flowing with good sense and apt suggestion. Of course 
there were many others whom I might mention with jus- 
tice, but Dunn, Whiton and Lovell are those who stand out 
most prominently in my memory as the leading general 
workers in the body.' 

There were many men in the convention who appeared to 
have an eye to their political hereafter and were continually 
looking after their fences. But as a whole it was a sensible 
body. There were no serious mistakes. The constitution 
evolved was, I thought, about what the best class of our 
people desired it to be. Of course the debates were not with- 
out, some extreme talk. There were some members whom I 
thought to be quite visionary on the women's rights ques- 
tion, — not as to the suffrage of women, but as to their 
exemptions and property holding. There was a wide differ- 
ence of opinion in the convention, on these topics, but the 
majority thought it best to leave the people, represented in 
legislature, to determine the matter. The members of the 
first constitutional convention made their gravest mistake 
in determining and fixing exemptions; and the popular dis- 
content with their work was largely on this score. The 
second convention started in to avoid the rocks upon which 
the instrument of the first had been wrecked. Several 
mooted questions were thus left to the people for subsequent 
legislative decision, — banks, for instance. The object of 
the second convention was to draft a constitution that would 
be popular, and this could only be done by allowing the peo- 
ple to fight over such questions of policy among themselves. 



The first movement by the general government towards 
the improvement of the Fox- Wisconsin river highway, — 
with a view to making a continuous line of navigation from 

^ Brief biographical sketches of the members of both constitutional con- 
ventions may be found in Tenney and Atwood's Fathers of Wisconsin 
(Madison, 1880), a useful publication. — Ed. 



4:10 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XI. 

Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river, — was made in 1839, 
while I was in the territorial council. Capt. Thomas J. 
Cram, of the topographical engineers, made, under the di- 
rection of the war department, a preliminary survey of the 
rivers and an estimate of the cost of their improvement. 
In 1846, while a delegate in congress, I secured, by dint of 
very hard work, the passage of an act (approved August 8) 
making a grant of land to the state, upon its admission into 
the union, for the improvement of the Fox river alone, and 
the building of a canal across the portage between the two 
rivers. The grant covered every odd-numbered section 
within three miles of the canal, the river and the lakes, en 
route from the portage to the mouth. When the second 
constitutional convention was held, this proposition on the 
part of congress was endorsed, and at the first session of the 
state legislature, the latter body passed an act, approved 
August 8, 1848, appointing a board of public works, consist- 
ing of five persons, and providing for the improvement of 
the river. The members of the board were elected in joint 
session of the legislature,' the same day, as follows: H. L, 
Dousman, Curtis Reed, John A. Bingham, Albert S. Story 
and James B. Estes. 

By the year 1850, the board had used up all the money 
they could raise by selling the lands. They had, in fact, an- 
ticipated the sales, and the affairs in their charge were in 
bad shape. On the 1st of January, 1851, they reported to 
the legislature' that the work would have to stop, unless 
some device for a more rapid sale of land could be origi- 
nated. While the affair was in this condition, I made a 
proposition to the legislature, through Governor Dewey," to 
do the work from Green Bay to Lake Winnebago, except 
what the board of public works had finished or was already 
under contract for. The board had dug the canal at Por- 
tage, before there was any steam navigation possible on 
the lower Fox. One of the chief features of its misman- 

' Wis. Senate Jour., 1848, pp. 353-856.— Ed. 
2 Wis. Assembly Jour., 1851, pp. 1003-1032.— Ed. 

=* The governor's message and Judge Martin's proposition and contract 
are given in full in Wis. Senate Jour., 1851, doc. R, appendix.— Ed. 



1851-52.] NARRATIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 411 

agement was, that the board allowed itself to be influenced 
by members of the legislature, each of whom wanted a por- 
tion of the money epent in his district, without regard to 
the general need. My proposition was, in effect, that the 
state should not be held liable for expenses attending the 
completion of the improvement, but that the tolls and the 
sale of lands should supply the means to reimburse me. 
The governor, in his message to the senate, said: " It is be- 
lieved that the proposition of Mr. Martin is a very favorable 
one for the state, and, if accepted, will ensure the final com- 
pletion of this important work at a much earlier day than 
the state can possibly accomplish it, in any other constitu- 
tional manner. ='' * * The early completion of this 
improvement will be promoted by its acceptance and would 
be economical." 

The legislature of 1851 accepted my proposition' and I 
went to work with about five hundred men, commencing at 
Kaukauna. Operations were carried on throughout that 
season, along the entire distance from Green Bay to Lake 
Winnebago. By the terms of my contract, the governor 
was to give me scrip, to be paid from the sale of lands and 
from the tolls on the work.' Governor Farwell came into 
office on the 5th of January, 1852. On the IGth, in his 
message to the legislature,' the governor reported that 
$26,000 had been paid to me for the season's work, in state 
scrip, and intimated that my contract was unconstitutional. 
He afterwards refused to give me any more of the scrip that 
had been lawfully earned; and I was obliged to secure the 

'Act approved March 11; contract was signed May 14. — Ed. 

- The contract read : " I propose to complete the whole work on or be- 
fore the first day of May, 1853, the same to be accepted as fast as com- 
pleted. The work to be paid for, from the sales of land granted (and to be 
granted) in aid of the improvement, so far as the funds can ba raised from 
that source. The amount due for the whole contract when completed, and 
remaining unpaid, to constitute a debt against the improvement, the in- 
(eresc of wliioh, at twelv" ppir cent., shall be paid from tolls to be col- 
lected on the work, and whenever the state shall realize funds, either from 
sale of lands or any other source, and pay the balance due on the contract, 
debt to be discharged." — Ed. 

3 Wis. Senate Jour., 1852, pp. 14-16.— Ed. 



412 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XI. 

passage by the legislature of an act' authorizing the secre- 
tary of state to give me certificates of indebtedness, instead 
of the governor. This v^as vetoed April 9/ Governor Far- 
well laying great stress on the claim that the bill treating 
with me was in violation of the spirit of both the act of 
congress making the land grant and the constitution of the 
United States. Attorney General Experience Estabrook, 
however, gave it as his opinion that the scrip issued to me 
was constitutional, and a joint committee of the legislature 
reported unanimously that the work had been conducted 
well and honorably. The legislature, therefore, passed the 
bill over the veto, and I resumed work. The trouble with 
the governor, however, had greatly shortened my season, 
for the uncertainty of the issue had obliged me to lose the 
advantage of early preparation, and it was not until July 14 
that the governor consented to have certificates issued under 
the act. 

At the session of 1853, the governor proposed, in a message 
to the legislature dated February 9,' to "submit the works 
to private enterprise," and have the skirts of the state cleared 
from all financial responsibility. It was urged by the gov- 
ernor that the moneys realized from the sale of lands were in- 
sufficient to meet the state's obligations. I therefore had a 
company formed, styled the Fox and Wisconsin Improve- 
ment Company, of whom Mason 0. Darling, Otto Tank, 
Edgar Conklin, Benjamin F. Moore, Joseph G. Lawton, 
Uriah H. Peak, Theodore Conkey, I and others were mem- 
bers. The articles of association were dated the 1st of 
June, 1853. This company was incorporated by the state 
under act approved July 6,' and to it was transferred the 
entire work, under condition that it fulfill the obligations 
of the state to all classes of contractors on the improvement. 

The Improvement Company went on with the work, under 
this act, until 1856, when the first boat, the Aquila, passed 

^ Chapter 340, Gen. Laws Wis., 1853.— Ed. 
^Wis. Senate Jour., 1852, pp. 591-599.- Ed. 
^Id., 1853, pp. 181-194. 
"Chapter 98, Gen. Laws Wis., 1853.— Ed. 



1855-56.] NARRATIVE OF MORGAN L. MARTIN. 413 

through the works, — from Pittsburg to Green Bay. Captain 
Brooks, who was afterwards master of the craft, died in 
Green Bay early in June, 1887. The Aquila was brought 
through by Charles Green, of Green Bay, who had purchased 
her at Pittsburg. I afterwards acquired an interest in the 
vessel and held it for some years. She, with the Pioneer, 
which I also owned, made regular trips between Green Bay 
and Fond du Lac. 

By act of congress approved Aug. 3, 1854 (construed by 
resolution of March 3, 1855), we had obtained an increase in 
our land grant," for the work was broadening out, as the 
years went on, and the depth of water sought was 
greater than at first. "We thereupon located a large body 
of fine land. The legislature, under chapter 64, general 
laws of 1855, authorized us to increase our capital stock to 
$250,000, and that same year we were compelled to seek out- 
side capital to swing the growing enterprise. The new- 
comers were New York capitalists, of whom Horatio Sey- 
mour, Erastus Corning and Hiram Barney were the leading 
spirits. This movement proved an exceedingly unfortunate 
one for us. The New York men deranged all our plans, 
and the upshot was that they got us into a position where 
we were obliged to submit, in February, 1866, to a foreclosure 
of the bonds and sale of the whole concern to the New 
Yorkers. The big imported fish swallowed the little natives. 

On the 15th of August, 1866, the purchasers at the Feb- 
ruary sale became incorporated as the Green Bay and Mis- 
sissippi Canal Company. But the surveys were thereafter 
conducted by government engineers.' 

In 1871, the secretary of war, acting under act of congress 
approved July 7, 1870, secured an appraisal of the company's 
plant, — improvements, water-powers and personal property. 
By act approved June 10, 1872, an appropriation was made 
by government to purchase the improvement alone, and in 

' The area of the whole grant on the Fox river, under this construction, 
was estimated at 684,269 acres, in report of select assembly committee, 
March 31, 1856. See also, reply to this report, by Theodore Conkey. — Ed. 

- Under instructions issued from the engineer department in July, 1866. 
— Ed. 



4:14 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vOL. XL 

October the company deeded the works to the United States. 
I put in a claim before the government commissioners, for 
a large amount of work performed, for which I had as yet 
received no compensation. The claim was allowed as just, 
but the company coolly collected the money. My suit for 
recovery brought me only about one half of the amount, 
and I have had no end of litigation with them ever since. I 
presume that I have spent much more in these suits than I 
ever received. 

We would have got along well enough, in the old com- 
pany, if we could have secured favorable legislation. But 
there was a continual wrangle at Madison over our affairs; 
sectional and official jealousies were ever hatching up new 
troubles for us. Then again, the legislature had issued scrip 
at twelve per cent, interest to other contractors as well as 
myself, — notwithstanding that I had been secured to finish 
the work alone, — and thus my contract was thrown into 
discredit. At the time I took the original contract, I con- 
sidered myself well-to-do in this world's goads. In order 
to start the work, I ran into debt fully $100,000 for supplies 
to furnish men, to purchase an immense number of tools 
and teams and to keep up an extensive pay-roll. These 
heavy obligations were a severe and almost crushing tax 
upon my finances, while the mental distress incident to those 
long years of doubt and wrangling was of a character that 
admitted of no adequate recompense, even had the venture 
been a profitable one.' 

' D wight I. Follett, in Th", Green Bay Gazette, Dec. 14, 1887, makes the 
following interesting statement, the result of conversations with Judge 
Martin on this topic: " To Morgan L. Martin belongs the credit of origi- 
nating the scheme of the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, 
and to his arduous, protracted and almost unaided efforts is due the be- 
ginning of the work which he lived to see a reality and the route a national 
highway under government protection. Very soon after he came to Green 
Bay, and in October, 1829, he called a meeting at his office (near where 
the Milwaukee and Northern railway depot now stands) to agitate that pro- 
ject. Mr. Martin presided. Resolutions in that behalf were passed and 
forwarded to congress. Within the past few months, in the course of a 
conversation on that subject, in reply to the question as to what led him 
to originate that scheme. Judge Martin said that the idea was first sug- 



1829.] NARRATIVE OP MORGAN L. MARTIN. 415 

gested to his mind by the fact that in the year 1838 the 5th regiment U. S. 
infantry came to Fort Howard on Durham boats, from Jefferson barracks, 
below St. Louis. Their baggage was loaded on the boats at that point and 
not unloaded until reaching here. The water at Portage happened to be 
high that year." In Hist. Columbia Co. (West. Flist. Co,, 1880), pp. 448-453, 
can be found an historical sketch of the Fox-Wisconsin improvement; see 
also, Wisconsin Blue Book for 1870 and a considerable collection of pam- 
phlets on the topic, in the Society's library. — Ed. 



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